Message from the Head of the School

SPAIS is an interdisciplinary research and teaching environment with over fifty academic staff, where prominent sociologists and political scientists are actively concerned with both central theoretical issues and cutting-edge empirical research. SPAIS staff are internationally renowned in their fields, and their ideas are developed in lively debate across the School through our various research Centres, lectures and seminars.

There has never been more need for innovative, relevant and rigorous social and political science. Our research and teaching in SPAIS addresses some of the most important topics that face everyone today: questions of globalisation, risk and uncertainty; issues of security and the resilience of states; of gender and social inequality; problems of migration, ethnicity and citizenship; and dilemmas of global development and sustainability. We address these with reference to our research conducted in areas as diverse as the societies of East Asia, the European Union and the United Kingdom, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East.

SPAIS is also a lively and friendly place in which to work and study. Benefiting from the distinctive ambience of the city of Bristol and the excellent facilities of the University, we provide a welcoming and supportive approach to students - undergraduate and postgraduate - and to scholars from diverse parts of the world.